Shell components which have a lower region, a frame region and optionally a flange region are often produced by drawing a planar or preformed plate of metal, preferably steel. There are known from the prior art methods and devices for producing drawn components, particularly ones which have flanges, with which methods and devices drawn components can be produced from a planar plate by deep-drawing and cutting in one working operation. For instance, it is known from the technical book “Schnitt-, Stanz- und Ziehwerkzeuge” (Cutting, punching and drawing tools), Öhler und Kaiser, 8th edition (2001), to construct the drawing die which comprises the lower region, frame region and flange region of the drawn component to be produced, in a vertically displaceable manner in order to cut the finished drawn component at the flange outside the tool components (die and punch) which have been moved together after the drawing operation has been carried out so that, as a result, the desired, flanged drawn component can be produced in one working operation of the drawing punch. A corresponding drawing die is illustrated on page 429 in the technical book mentioned. However, the construction of the cutting/drawing tool which is known from the prior art is relatively complex owing to the vertically displaceable drawing die.
There are further already in the prior art methods and corresponding devices which are for producing drawn components with integrated cutting and which carry out the cutting operation in a stretching/drawing step of the plate in order to prevent scraping of the flange region at the cutting edge of the drawing punch so that, during the cutting operation, the material is under great tensile load and the flange region accordingly follows behind the cut. As a result of the relatively uncontrolled following action of the flange region, drawn components produced in this manner cannot be produced in a dimensionally precise manner with a high level of process reliability. Finally, another problem involves the flange region further having to extend obliquely relative to the frame region in order to prevent scraping on the sharp cutting edge. A frequently desirable, right-angled extent of the flange region relative to the frame region cannot be produced in one method step. Deep-drawing presses do not have highly precise tool guiding so that cutting operations, in particular in the region of the lower region and frame region, are impossible in such presses or can be carried out only with great difficulty and complexity.
Although the Applicant has achieved a solution for cutting the flange region in one working step during drawing with the as yet unpublished German patent application DE 10 2011 050 002.2, a similar problem also exists for the upper cutting of a drawn plate. At least two method steps are currently used, that is to say, drawing the plate and carrying out the cutting. Generally, additional cutting steps are necessary if, in addition, a so-called upper cutting is carried out in the lower region and frame region and optionally in the flange region of a shell component.